Y Combinator Income Pilot Experiment: Where The Money Will Come From, Critics Ask

A pilot experiment on basic income will be launched by Y Combinator in Oakland, CA. According to reports, the startup accelerator has done research about basic income and will soon begin paying salaries. In a blog post, the company announced that their objective will be to arrange a longer-term study through their methods: how to gather data, how to pay people, how to select random sample among others.

The concept of basic income that guarantees a base level of monetary support for each person, has become popular recently. Y Combinator president Sam Altman said that as technology takes jobs, the demand for a universal basic income is going to become more crucial.  

However, the pilot experiment also has its critics, asking about where the money will come from. While Y Combinator, given its line of wealthy investors, may not worry about the funding of its basic income project, the issue of funding is a more urgent concern for governments. As insisted by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a government-funded basic income will increase poverty by removing funding from the federal programs that support the poor and rather inject such fund into the upper and middle classes.

Nevertheless, Y Combinator believes that the pilot experiment is a method to design basic income for the future, adding that the government funding might not be the appropriate approach. The company's Oakland research will be spearheaded by Elizabeth Rhodes, who is a PhD graduate from the University of Michigan, according to YCombinator blog.

According to Altman, the income will not be conditional in their pilot experiment as they are going to provide it to participants for the span of the study, regardless of. He further noted that people will be enabled to work, volunteer, not to work, or even move to another country. Altman hopes that the basic income will encourage freedom and that they want to witness how the people will experience that freedom, according to Venture Beat.

The accelerator has also confirmed working with the Oakland city officials as well as community groups to plan the pilot experiment, which has no official launch date yet.